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Faithful lieutenant Hincapie

Perennial rival Ullrich, sporting a bandage after a training mishap

Horner finally gets to the big show, and seems happy to be there

Rodriguez, sans stars-and-stripes this year

The wise-cracking Zabriskie takes his sense of humor to a whole new level

The Lithuanian cycling federation on Thursday deplored the aggressive manner in which the Baltic state's star cyclist Raimundas Rumsas was arrested in Italy this week. “Why use these hard-line tactics?" questioned Vytautas Zubernis, vice-president of the Baltic state's cycling federation. "Raimundas Rumsas lives in Europe. He is not in hiding. This kind of arrest would be justified if he had refused to attend his hearing" Rumsas was detained Wednesday in Italy on a European international arrest warrant issued by French prosecutors investigating drug trafficking. In 2002 Rumsas was

When Lance Armstrong announced his retirement, to begin July 24, theimplications for the 2005 Tour de France couldn’t have been more profound.Three weeks after the six-time defending champion takes the start in Fromentineon July 2, one of two historic scenarios will develop: Either a rival willrise to the occasion and become the only rider to have stopped Armstrongin his streak of Tour victories, or Armstrong will further distance himselffrom an elite group of five-time Tour champions with an unprecedented seventhconsecutive victory. Either way, the cycling world awaits the outcome. Since

With a little bit of luck, T-Mobile will arrive at the 2005 Tour withits full weaponry in place and finely honed. The German powerhouse hopesto wage a three-front war on Lance Armstrong, spearheaded by perennialTour contender Jan Ullrich and buttressed by a resurgent Andreas Klödenand the ever-combative Alexander Vinokourov. And if all goes accordingto plan, T-Mobile hopes its time to bring down Armstrong may have finallycome. “I’ve been trying for a long time to prove that there is strength innumbers, but I’ve never been able to get everything to come together,”says T-Mobile team manger

The latest Photo Gallery in our continuing photo contest has now been posted for your viewing pleasure. Last Week's WinnerWe’ve awarded a copy of Graham Watson’s "Landscapes of Cycling." to Bill Parsons for "Bug Eyes," a shot that perfectly captures that "Oh $#@&!!!!" moment of realization that something is going on behind you. Thank you and congratulations Bill. We'll be sending you a copy of Graham Watson's "Landscapesof Cycling. This Week's ContestThe announcement of a winner also signals the start of a New Contest, so go ahead and take a look at the Gallery from this

Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong said he isn’t quite ready to decide on his post-cycling career path until after he finishes this year’s race and takes “a few years to just relax and really evaluate what I want to do with my life.” Armstrong held a pre-Tour press conference in Challans, France. Thursday, two days before the start of what he has promised will be his final professional race. Armstrong will saddle up on Saturday hoping that the "tough" 19km time trial from Fromentine to Noirmoutier will begin a successful final trek around the country which has been his home every July

The 92nd edition of the Tour de France promises to be one of the most competitive in the event’s history. Each of the 21 teams is made up of riders with specific roles. Climbers, sprinters, time trialists and domestiques. Each is essential to a team’s success at the tour. Here is a look at each of the teams contesting the race. AGR-Prevoyance (France)Jean-Patrick Nazon (Fra)Ludovic Turpin (Fra)Mikel Astarloza (Spa)Nicolas Portal (Fra)Samuel Dumoulin (Fra)Simon Gerrans (Aus)Stéphane Goubert (Fra)Sylvain Calzati (Fra)Yuriy Krivtsov (Ukr) Bouygues Telecom (France)Anthony Geslin (Fra)Didier

Once a year we get a cycling event that is so big that it deserves its own special corner of VeloNews.com. Keep track of the greatest sporting event in the world by logging visiting www.velonews.com/tour2005/ and bookmarking the site to follow developments throughout the three-week-long Tour de France. We will have live daily coverage, daily highlight videos of each stage, full results, and pictures. Don't miss out on any of the great stories that will make up the fabric of this year's Tour de France!

Armstrong's Stage 17 win last year capped a dominant Tour.

VeloNews Photo Contest: A new winner and a new gallery

Armstrong works his way through a crowd of reporters to attend a pre-Tour press conference in Challans on Thursday.

Armstrong and his Discovery Channel teammates reconnoiter Saturday's time trial course.

Floyd Landis isn’t one to take things too seriously; be it himself or the often-intense business of racing bicycles. The 29-year-old enters this year’s Tour de France anxious to prove to the world he deserves his shot at being a team leader, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun along the way. After a strong ride at the Dauphiné Libéré, Landis rolls into Fromentine this Saturday knowing his form is on target for the season’s big test. Phonak officials are quietly confident their man can deliver a top-five result, perhaps even claw his way onto the podium. VeloNews European

Dan Coyle is a contributing editor for Outside magazine, a two-time National Magazine Award finalist, and the author of “Hardball: A Season in the Projects.” Most recently, Coyle spent the 2004 season following Lance Armstrong and has offered his insights in his book "LanceArmstrong's War," which reached bookstores last week. VeloNews contributor Sebastian Moll recently had a chance to sit down with Coyle and discuss the impressions a year spent with "Lance Inc." made on the author from Homer, Alaska. VeloNews: So, after nearly a year trying to figure it out, maybe we should start

Lithuanian rider Raimondas Rumsas has been detained in Italy on a European international arrest warrant issued by French prosecutors investigating drug trafficking. His French lawyer, Alexandre Varaut, told AFP they would be appealing to a Florence court to get the 33-year-old Rumsas released. In 2002 Rumsas was involved in a scandal after his wife Edita was caught with large quantities of growth hormones and other drugs in her car after the Tour de France in which Rumsas had finished third. Rusmas had already left France but his wife was jailed for several months before being released and

The week before the Tour de France is finally here. The second half of the season has already begun. The Giro d’Italia is long over, along with the Dauphiné and Tour du Suisse. Before you know it, we will be at Lombardi racing the last race of the calendar. I raced – well okay, I participated – in the Dauphiné after the Giro. I stopped with one day to go and even that was a few days too late. I have been at home ever since. It's a weird feeling being home after more-or-less racing non-stop for five weeks. You find yourself ridiculously restless and then absolutely knackered all at

PARIS (AP) -- Lance Armstrong's team director says only three riders could threaten the Texan's bid for a seventh straight Tour de France title when cycling's showcase race begins Saturday. Johan Bruyneel, Armstrong's tactical adviser in each of his six Tour wins, picked 1997 winner Jan Ullrich, Alexandre Vinokourov and Ivan Basso as the main competition. ''I think those three are the real challengers,'' Bruyneel said this week in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. Vinokourov is not as quick as his T-Mobile teammate Ullrich on time trials, but

This is the last chance for Jan Ullrich and his lonely quest to beat Lance Armstrong. With just a few days to go before the pair’s final Tour de France showdown, Ullrich’s optimism proves yet again that hope springs eternal. “I’d love to beat him,” Ullrich, 31, told Welt am Sonntag newspaper. “He’s dominated the race for the last six years and broken the records of the century. That's my motivation -- this is the last chance.” The red-headed German has consistently been Armstrong’s top rival in the Texan’s six-year Tour reign. Ullrich nearly derailed Armstrong in the exciting 2003

Chris Wherry laughs about it now, but in the first days after his stunning win at the USPRO Championships, he admits he had something of a tenuous relationship with the race’s top prize. “When I first came home I had two of the national championship jerseys and I didn’t wear either of them for like three days,” said Wherry during an interview with VeloNews at his home in Durango, Colorado, on Monday. “I was like, I’m not going to take this thing out training. It’s totally being a poser. But then I was finally like screw it, I f--king won that race. That was a hard day. I deserve to wear this

By announcing on April 12 that the 2005 edition will be his last Tour de France and that his career will come to a close when the race does, Lance Armstrong has not changed the expectations for the race — after all, the players are all the same. He has, however, changed the context in which the race will unfold. Armstrong has liberated himself from a two-year commitment that seemed to weigh on him. Surely his position as “absolute record holder” with six consecutive victories gives him the right to be master of his own destiny as a cyclist. There is a certain amount of panache to this move,

Levi Leipheimer and Georg Totschnig shared more at last year’s Tour de France than their top-10 finishes. In key mountain stages, whenever the roads went up, both quickly found themselves isolated without any team support. Leipheimer’s Rabobank teammate Michael Rasmussen spent much of the Tour in a vain hunt for a stage win, so when the time came for Leipheimer to find a friendly wheel, the former mountain-bike world champion was already blown out the back. Totschnig, meanwhile, got some help on the mountain approaches from his young Gerolsteiner teammates, but he was often left to fight

Waving to the crowd from the final Dodge Tour de Georgia podium, a grinning Floyd Landis looked as though he couldn’t be happier. He showed no disappointment in his overall third-place finish, even though he had begun the final climbing stage two spots higher, only to be passed by Discovery’s Tom Danielson and Gerolsteiner’s Levi Leipheimer. Nor were there signs of the strained relationship with his former U.S. Postal Service captain Lance Armstrong, with whom Landis had exchanged curt words just hours earlier regarding the previous day’s finish. There was no sign of fatigue or pressure or

VeloNews and the HandleBar & Grill will team up on Saturday,July 2 at 5:30 p.m. to kick off the Tour de France!Launching the biggest month-long Tour party in Colorado, the HandleBar& Grill will throw a Tour de France bash at its location near downtownDenver.Watch Outdoor Life Network’s coverage of the first stage of the 92ndTour de France on HandleBar & Grill’s large outdoor screen or relaxat the bar and watch inside.Admission is free to watch the Tour alongside hundreds of passionatecycling fans as the world’s strongest cyclists race the short distanceindividual time trial that

The reigning champion, Jure Robic, concluded his domination of the2005 Insight Race Across America through furnace-like conditionson a refreshingly cool, cloudy evening on the Atlantic CityBoardwalk. He completed the 3,502 miles in 9 days, 8 hours and 48minutes. Throughout this unusually hot race, Robic proved far moreresilient than any of his rivals to the brutal heat that bore downfrom above and bounced mercilessly back off the road. When the Appalachian mountains rose as the final, dauntingchallenge to legs weary from 2,500 miles' racing, Robic remainedsmooth and strong. No rider at

Ullrich has his eye on the yellow jersey

Wherry and the jersey he won at Philly. It was a little on the small side.

Mementos from a Philly win.

Close up with a prize not many of us get to see.

Wherry says his ab roller is one of his key training tools.

Leblanc, 60, directs the Tour for the 17th time this year

Signed as co-captain by Gerolsteiner, Leipheimer is aiming for a top-five finish

Totschnig says the Plateau de Beille stage last year was one of my best days as a pro.

Robic arrives in Atlantic City

T-Mobile rolls into this week’s Tour de France with a stronger focus than ever. The German team will leave sprinter ace Erik Zabel at home to fortify its Tour objective of beating Lance Armstrong in his final run at the maillot jaune. Alexandre Vinokourov said the team is more motivated than ever, with Jan Ullrich, Andreas Klöden and Vino’ sharing the load on the road to Paris. “I don’t have individual objectives. The whole team is geared up for one objective: winning the Tour de France. I won’t be there to ride my own race, but to ride for the team,” Vinokourov said on the team’s web page.

 BMC with a new Secret weapon for the Tour de FranceBMC, the leading Swiss high-end bicycle brand, has developed for thenumber 1 Pro Tour Team Phonak a new secret weapon for the Tour de France.Last year, BMC had already introduced the revolutionary “Time Machine“during the Tour de France, which set the new standard for time trial bikes.This year, we can present another revolutionary bike the BMC “Pro Machine”.The “Pro Machine is the first bicycle frame in the world which is madeentirely using the revolutionary Easton CNT-Nanotechnology.Nanotechnology is the next frontier in scientific

One Monday morning, about three months ago, I was browsing through the weekend’s papers, and feeling not too interested in the day’s work ahead of me when something landed on my desk to break the boredom. An invitation from a man by the name of Paul McQuaid. From Ireland. To ride nine century rides with his tour company in June, right around the coast of Ireland. Heck, this was the sort of thing I needed and I immediately contacted Paul by email to see what it was all about. The response was swift and encouraging. “What we do is we take people on nine century rides around Ireland,” was his

YELLOW JERSEYThe yellow jersey — or maillot jaune — is worn by the overall raceleader, the rider who has covered the overall distance in the least amountof cumulative time. Time bonuses (20 seconds for winning a road stage,six seconds for winning an intermediate sprint) are deducted, and timepenalties (for infractions like dangerous riding or accepting pushes fromspectators on the climbs) are added to riders’ stage times before calculatingtheir GC (general classification) times.2004 WINNER: Lance Armstrong (USA), U.S. Postal Service POINTS LEADERThe green points-leader’s jersey is awarded to

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.Flesh heals . . .Editor:Wow, I just read your article on Lance's crash. I guess I'd ask the same question that I ask when any of my buddies crash: "Is the bike okay?” All kidding aside, we're looking forward to your coverage of the Tour. Good luck to the riders. Corbett

Athens, Ohio - Juré Robic’s grizzled, sun baked body resisted. It wanted to stay on the soft grass, out of the sun, relaxed by the side of the road in Athens, Ohio. But the mind of the Insight Race Across America’s defending champion had other ideas. So Robic rose, with the help of two crew members, threw a leg over his Italian race bike, and pedaled on the down the road as he has for the previous seven-and-a-half days, towards time station 45. With the departure of second place Mike Trevino from the race earlier in the day, due to a separated shoulder, Robic’s second consecutive RAAM win

Vinokourov says T-Mobile wants to pull out all the stops

Press Release: Nine Centuries in Ireland (with a bit of Guinness thrown in for good measure)

Press Release: Nine Centuries in Ireland (with a bit of Guinness thrown in for good measure)

The fight for the jerseys

Do I have to get up again?

Greenville, Illinois – There’s an accepted truth in the annals of the Race Across America: the race really begins once the riders hit the Mississippi River. While it’s not the mathematical half-way mark, the Mississippi is the most obvious indication that there’s still a heap of riding yet to go. If that’s so, then the leader through day seven, Slovenia’s Juré Robic, is just getting warmed up to repeat his win of a year ago. As potential challengers have fallen by the wayside, brought low by unreasonable early efforts, extreme heat, and the simple fatigue of riding 20 to 22 hours a day for a

First-year senior Gerald Ciolek ended T-Mobiles long running dominanceof the German national road championships on Sunday, beating such Germansprinting stalwarts like Gerolsteiner's Robert Forster and especially T-Mobile's Erik Zabel in the final charge to the line at the end of a 204-kilometer road race in Manheim. The German event comes on the same day as all European national championship races.With 75 meters to go, it appeared that Zabel had the national titlein the bag. But suddenly Ciolek, who has still contested junior events thisseason, charged out of the field to catch and

Lance Armstrong is not looking too good these days: He has a black eye, a cut over his right eyebrow and abrasions on his hands and knees. The six-time defending Tour de France champion crashed at low speed during the start of a training ride last week. He lost control on his time-trial bike and sailed over the handlebars, his helmet splitting in two on impact. Armstrong shrugs it off. After all, for someone who's beaten cancer and rewritten cycling's record book, bumps and bruises are small stuff. “I'm excited about the race. I feel very good on the bike,” Armstrong said

The crew from Kona dominated the downhill at Mont-Sainte-Anne Sunday, with Tracy Moseley winning the fourth round of the World Cup for the women and Fabien Barel the men's for the Kona Les Gets Team. Competitors were nearly universal in their praise for the course. The reason for their positive comments was simple – it was a long course. "Real mountain biking" was often mentioned. The return of the start at the top of the mountain after three years was clearly a crowd-pleaser. WomenThe favorite going into this round of the World Cup was the series points leader Sabrina Jonnier of

There was quite a contrast on the final day of festivities at the Crested Butte Fat Tire Bike Week on Sunday afternoon. While a mix of amateur and pro downhillers competed in the final event of the fifth annual Wildflower Rush up on the tacky slopes of Mount Crested Butte, a band of 63 riders were contesting the final hours of the first annual Bridges of the Butte 24 Hour Townie Tour. The downhill event was preceded by a Super D race held on a cloudy morning here in the cradle of the Elk Mountains. Rain rolled through on and off, delaying the downhill several times, and delaying final

>PUTNAMVILLE, Indiana (10:47 a.m. EST, June 26, 2005) Second-placesolo racer, Mike Trevino, announced his withdrawal from RAAM this morning.According to information on his website, Trevino fell off his bikearound 8:30 a.m. EST and separated his shoulder."He was looking back for just a second and hit a little bump that tookhim down," explained a member of Trevino's crew. "We talked about continuingbut he would've had to ride with one arm the rest of theway and that's just not safe."RAAM rules also prohibit riders from taking any kind of pain medicationand with the pain quickly on

Chris MacDonald suffers in the heat

A member of the CBFD team heads out on another lap at the 24 hour townie tour

This was one of three sweat suits that Than Acuff donned during the 24-hour townie tour in which he was the only rider to compete as a soloist.

A bib used at the Bridges of the Butte 24 Hour Townie Tour

The bikes come in all shapes and sizes here at Crested Butte Fat Tire Week

Three members of the 16-rider Crested Butte FD relay team that won the 24-hour townie race.

With Mount Crested Butte in the background, a racer heads toward the finish during the Wildflower Rush downhill race on Sunday.

A racer holds on for dear life during the downhill race at the Wildflower Rush at Mount Crested Butte.

Bike racks packed with clunkers and cruisers of all shapes and sizes are commonplace in Crested Butte.

Riders in the 24 hour townie race head down Elk Avenue in Crested Butte toward the finish, where much beer drinking quickly commenced.

Crested Butte local Than Acuff was the only rider to complete the 24-hour townie race as a soloist. He claimed that his secret to success were Backwoods Cigars, which helped him stay awake in the wee hours of the night.

Roberto Heras enters next week's Tour de France an enigmatic figure among the list of favorites. The three-time Vuelta a España champion has kept a very low profile so far this season, leaving many to wonder if he'll be ready to face Lance Armstrong and the other Tour contenders on the same level. During the recent Dauphiné Libéré, Heras hardly left any impression at all as he rode well back in the pack during the big climbs at Mont Ventoux and Joux Plane. He insists, however, he'll be ready for the Tour. "It's not something worrisome because the mountains in the Tour are

Kyle Gritters (Team Seasilver) won the under-23 criterium on Friday at Utah’s Park City Cycling Festival, while Kimberly Geist (Victory Brewing) claimed the 17-18 win with a last-minute attack. During the 37-mile U-23 race, Gritters lapped the field with last year’s road-race champion, Ian MacGregor (TIAA-CREF), then pipped his breakaway companion at the line. Geist, meanwhile, spent much of the afternoon in a five-woman breakaway, then used the final 400-meter ascent as a springboard to victory. Other winners on the day included Rebecca Much (U-23 women); Karla Lopez (junior women 10-12);

Going into the Mont-Ste-Anne round of the UCI World Cup mountain-bike series, the weather in Québec has gone through a substantial change. Friday morning's rain proved to be the leading edge of hot, hot air that has been hanging around the Great Lakes, and Saturday’s high temperature is expected to reach 31 degrees Celsius (87.8 Fahrenheit), with the humidity making it feel even warmer. Even at 9 a.m. Saturday the conditions were hot and sticky. With the heat in mind, the officials have decided the number of laps: six for pro men and five for pro women, plus a start loop for each. Most

It was easy to track where Marie-Helene Premont (Rocky Mountain-Business Objects) was on the cross-country course at the Mont-Ste-Anne World Cup - just follow the thunderous applause from the partisan crowd. People came streaming out of the woods in droves, trying to get a spot along the finish chute to welcome Premont to the winner's circle, after she dropped World Cup leader Gunn-Rita Dahle (Multivan Merida) late in the fourth lap to take the lead. Wearing her traditional ear-to-ear smile, Premont came across the line with arms in the air. She then stopped and lifted her bike in the

With the festival portion of the Crested Butte’s Fat Tire Bike Week winding down, attention turned to racing up at the ski area on Saturday. On the day’s slate was the Wildflower Rush cross-country, stop No. 5 in the Mountain States Cup. Competition commenced on an 8-mile loop that cut a figure eight across the front side of Crested Butte Mountain Resort. The bad news was that with the race starting at 9375 feet, any climb was painful. The good news was that nearly all the descents were on the windy single-track for which this mountain-biking Mecca is famous. In the pro races the women’s